Chapter Text
So dawn goes down to day,
Nothing gold can stay,
The hardest hue to hold.
When questioned, the Professor had little to say about her past. Her fellow initiates and teachers of Raya Lucaria often spoke ill of her because of her taciturn nature, but as Marika’s troops bled across the horizon, none could say her silence wasn’t comforting. While others wailed in their pains, or complained unceasingly of the stubbornness of Godfrey’s troops, she remained silent, pale fingers wrapped around her stave with gray eyes peering up at the endless stars.
Sellen was the first to befriend the stranger. Though she had passed all tests, speaking little of her past and even less of her real interests, the Graven Witch’s insatiable appetite for answers drew her to the silvered silence of her peer.
“Many say you’re unapproachable,” Sellen had noted, her voice ringing softly behind her stone helm. She was answered with silence. “Most call you Professor Europa - I’ve not heard of such a surname before.”
“...it’s from my homeland,” she replied quietly, merely in the process of gathering a few books from the endless shelves of the library. Her voice was smooth, and low, like the babble of a river, like running water. Sellen was surprised to hear it, most who spoke infrequently had a gravely voice, gruff from disuse. Instead the new initiate had the vocal hues of a singer.
Though the room was quiet, save for the shuffle of papers and murmurs between students, Sellen had no qualms about sharpening her tone if it meant garnering more answers.
“ Homeland , that’s more than anyone else has gotten out of you. Europa then, is it a landmass?” Europa cringed a bit.
“...In a way,” she replied slowly, gray eyes glancing to Sellen. They flickered bright greens, and blues, and Sellen paused to stare - gray eyes? No, they were more like polished mirrors, reflecting back any color they peered into. She could see her helm in Europa’s eyes. She could see herself.
Stranger and stranger.
“Care to extrapolate?”
“Not really,” she sighed, and pulled down another scroll, eyes flicking over it in faint interest, “My past is a bedrock, and the foundation is firm. I grow tired of those testing its mettle when I am clearly here on my own two feet.”
“I can’t speak for others,” Sellen countered softly, plucking the scroll from her hands to curiously peer at his contents “yet I merely want a conversational companion who shares some intellect, or at least the desire to learn more than they know already. Many of the Professors here are glorified soldiers, and though I hold the upmost respect for the Carian Knights and the power they command, they make poor researchers.”
“...Anihita,” she replied quietly. “My full name is Anihita Europa . I am here to research the stars and moons.”
“Of course you are, you’re in Raya Lucaria. That’s a bit of a broad subject, isn’t it?”
“It’s hard to explain,” she shook her head “and… it will likely be a fruitless venture, in the end. Yet I would do myself no harm in trying, else I will never know.”
Sellen looked upon Anihita fondly, tilting her head and tapping a fingertip to her helm, “Well… do tell me if I can assist with any research.”
“I will keep it in mind.”
Curiously, Sellen peered at the scroll she’d plucked from Anihita - A Complex Guide to the Machinations of the Living Mind. She snorted, “Looking to be a healer, then?”
“I’ve got a friend who has… sleeping issues,” she sighed, rolling her eyes as she snatched the scroll from Sellen’s grip “whether or not she has a brain remains to be seen, but I thought I could assist on some level.”
“There is a type of water-lily I hear that assists with sleep,” Sellen offered lightly, her voice faint with a chuckle, “as well as many spell-related remedies the school provides.”
“Oh, no,” Ani murmured thoughtlessly, reading the cover of another book, “the issue is, she hasn’t been able to wake up for a while now.”
“...what?”
Anihita departed then, her arms full of scrolls, and her black hair vanishing into the shadows of the library like smoke. Sellen simply stared.
“...what???”
Sellen would’ve liked to seek out her strange peer, but found herself walking in on a situation she thought she’d only read of in little children’s faerie books. A bouquet in one hand and a gold-filigree scroll in the other, Anihita had passed a few soft words to their Carian Queen and swiftly departed.
Sellen had never seen Rennala so red in the face before, blinking in surprise and clutching both with sincere wonder. She’d been quietly courted by many knights before, but none had found a way to ease into her heart without appearing the part of a barbarian, or a lustful swordsman.
Then again as far as Sellen knew, Rennala had never been openly courted by a woman before.
She’d managed to find Anihita’s workspace and, dropping into her office with all the grace of an anvil, she announced “You’ve a stronger spine than I initially thought!”
Ani nearly dropped what she was holding, pens and papers scattering into her lap. She glowered. “Compared to what , exactly. And knock before you enter, you’re lucky I was just holding my tea.”
Sellen ignored her grumbles, moving to sit on her desk and cross her legs. The poor thing creaked with the effort of holding up Anihita’s research and a whole researcher. “I think everyone at attention today was surprised to see you try some kind of courtship with Queen Rennala. None have attempted it for some years now!”
“Then it is their loss,” she returned to her work, keen on straightening her workspace proper. She pointedly yanked a scroll out from under Sellen’s leg, but she simply crossed them the other direction.
“...do you truly think you can woo the heart of the Carian Queen?”
“We have had this conversation once before, Sellen,” Anihita replied dryly “you will not know if you do not try .”
Sellen stared a moment, arms crossed, head only tilted enough to invite interest, and hummed. “...damn, you are quite likable.”
“Then perhaps, if it gains me peace to be annoying, I’ll learn how to play one of those screeching Leyndell trumpets I keep hearing in the morning.”
“Ugh, do not remind me. Godfrey’s men are being mowed down like wheat against a scythe, and Queen Marika still sees fit to keep throwing her people at the wall.”
“The definition of madness,” Anihita agreed mutely, staring into space, before she simply shook her head. “That’s what happens when you talk to a star, I suppose. Planets and moons are always a bit less fickle.”
“Now you’re the one sounding mad.”
“Are you annoyed enough to leave yet?”
Sellen suddenly clutched Anihita’s hand in her own, “Never.” Ani got the sense her eyes were shining behind her mask. “Come to a few of my lectures sometime. I’d love a peer there who doesn’t have the ego of a bloated whale.”
Ani blinked a few times, looking boggled, her mouth working at the air. “What? I’m busy .”
“Then make time!”
“You are as stubborn as a mule and you bale twice as loud,” she bemoaned, shaking her hand free of Sellen’s grip, “give me a time and a place, and I’ll try to be there.”
“It’s a promise, then. No take-backsies.”
Sellen wouldn’t admit aloud how pleased she was to see Anihita among the ranks of those listening to her lecture later that week.
“What did you think?”
“Of the presentation, or of how your Master Azur nearly tugged you out by your ear afterwards?”
Sellen flushed beneath her helm, the tips of her fingers turning pink, “That was… unplanned. Yet, your thoughts…?”
Ani paused, sighed, and then looked to her, weighing her options. Though she would loathe to admit it, Sellen got the sense that Anihita was much older than her young features suggested, at least by how she calculated her words so carefully. She watched with all the focus of a learned creature, and moved with purposeful articulation. At times, Sellen thought she was staring at a very large insect.
“...it was not bad . And your theories on Glintstone vitality aren’t unfounded. Yet, it's treading into some… dangerous territory. I would suggest you polish your lectures to a mirror hue before announcing another theory like that, elsewise the Carian royal family might come sniffing.”
“Oh, but aren’t you Rennala’s lover?” She spoke the sentence with all the flourish of a schoolyard bully, wiggling a finger through the air.
Ani’s cheeks smudged red. Sellen liked to see a reaction from her.
“Not in the slightest. A few gifts and fond words do not make a lover .”
“Well, tell me when you woo the woman properly, I’d like to use that nepotism to continue my research.”
“Sellen!” Ani elbowed her lightly, and Sellen was pleased to find the both of them smiling.
War always made things complicated, and there was a collective sigh when Marika finally commanded Godfrey to pull his troops back. Knights began to trickle home, and the walls of Raya Lucaria began to fill to the brim again, the mortar and brick of the walls groaning with a full stomach.
“I’m not a fan,” Anihita announced at her desk one evening, in the middle of grafting Glintstone. Sellen peeked up at her.
“...of what? The experiment? I said you didn’t have to-”
“The number of students in these halls.”
“Oh, you like the silence?”
Anihita stared down at the vials and paperwork between her hands, sketching the air. “...it’s getting sloppy , that’s all. There’s a lot of people here who want different things, and a great deal of them don’t understand what it takes to get there. I worry something terrible will happen to this academy soon.”
“You’re quite paranoid for being so smart; but I won’t deny, it's hard finding any sort of personal space around these halls recently.” This was only proven further by how Sellen and Anihita had agreed to share a space when occupancy began to reach a maximum in their classes, and lecture halls were full ear to ear every day. Luckily, Ani didn’t seem to mind sharing a lab, especially since much of her research involved extensive reading rather than direct experimentation.
Ani shook her head. “...perhaps I’m barking at shadows. But you should do well to keep your thoughts closer to your chest, Sellen.”
“...I’ll keep that in mind, thank you for the advice. On that note- you mentioned a friend earlier, much earlier, who had trouble… with sleeping?”
“I’m… working on it. It may take a while. And I’m not sure it's possible.”
“A cold bucket of water won’t do the trick?”
Ani wrinkled her nose, “She’s a bit big for that.”
“You are an enigma, my friend, but I’ll let you keep your secrets - since you let me keep mine.”
“It doesn’t please me,” Ani murmured “the work you’re doing. But it isn’t any of my business, so be smart about it.”
“A friend indeed,” Sellen chuckled.
The breath of relief that swept through Luirnia was not meant to last, it seemed. Already, Rennala was getting reports of Godfrey and Marika boosting their numbers yet again, bolstering them for another fight.
“Will wonders never cease,” she sighed faintly, long, lithe fingers fluttering through her reports, “and the knights only just came home a few months ago. They’ll be in a wretched mood to be tugged from their families for another fruitless war.”
Idly, she tugged on a flower in her nearby bouquet. A scholar had taken to bringing them to her regularly, along with rare scrolls or spells of new and exciting power… though Rennala did like to play the part of coy noble, it was endearing. Europa never overstayed nor made any insinuations that she should, and her bright eyes looked like the silver-sharp edge of her waxing moon on frigid nights, clear and singular in their purpose.
It wasn’t like being wooed by a knight, or a warrior, who were blunt with their words or tried to polish their wants with poetry they didn’t write. She relished in the newness of it. The academy was intensely competitive, yet Europa still gave her strange new findings to Rennala every time. They weren't simple translations or recent texts, either, nothing came to her desk that could be considered boring . Each and every scroll came from a land across the fog, with magic as unusual and fierce as a winter blizzard. Rennala hadn't personally tested any of them yet, but she hesitated to walk the world of dreams without a guide.
As though summoned, Europa knocked twice in the doorway and was allowed in, bright eyes on the Carian Queen. “Your majesty? If I may have a moment of your time?”
“Of course,” she replied, smoothing out her paperwork, “what troubles you?”
“No troubles, simply that word has hit the floor of Marika’s next campaign brewing. We scholars would offer our services in training the new recruits, instead of leaving such matters solely to the Carian Knight elites.”
“Mn,” Rennala thought it over, thumbing at her lips in contemplation. It did not go unnoticed how Europa followed the motion hawkishly. “It would hasten their understanding of the spells they use, yet I worry it would burn them out twice as quick. Being a Carian knight is not easy, and the training is brutal…”
“Then I will simply train alongside them and document any ill effects of learning spellcasting on multiple fronts,” she offered, shrugging once.
Rennala stared, unsure whether to call her courageous or idiotic. “...it is not as simple as attending a lecture , and few can truly manage the full honor of the title.”
“Then perhaps you have never attended Sellen’s sermons, they’ve been nothing less than a slow spiral into tedium,” Europa lifted a brow, smiling faintly. “I do not make this suggestion lightly, my Queen. What scholar would I be if I cannot even assist the country I call home? Besides, given Marika’s proclivity for hitting first and asking questions later, it cannot hurt to ensure there are at least footsoldiers who can manage their own in case of a siege, even if they never make it into knighthood.”
“...do you truly think she would go so far?”
Europa spoke automatically. “I think she would eat this planet straight to the core if she could.”
Her statement sat heavily between them, thick between the manuscripts that littered Rennala’s desk, settling around the moonlit room like a shroud. The queen sighed.
“...very well. I expect updates as frequently as you can manage them, Europa.”
She bowed in silence and departed.
“You are an idiot ,” Sellen hissed, working her hands across Anihita’s spine in angry motions, thinning the blood clots out “an utter fool! A fool in love at that!”
“It is not something I would’ve offered without thought,” she replied, but her usual evenness was shattered by a throaty groan of pain as Sellen sparked a few healing spells across her spine.
“No one is mad enough to learn of such mentally tolling spellwork along with training to be a knight. No one except you! The studies we sorceresses put ourselves through are hard enough, adding Knight training is self destructive and stupid, so you’ve offended me on two fronts!”
“Come now,” Ani suggested between her flinches and barks of pain, her body a patchwork of bruises and cuts, and glintstone burns, “you think it's funny.”
“It is, only because you’re stupid!” she smacked the back of her head once with a scroll. Ani groaned. “Here I thought you had intellect!”
“I do have intellect, I’m just not very smart sometimes.”
“What do you expect to do exactly, win a war for Rennala, be a charming hero and knight, and scholar , all in one? You’re going to turn yourself into a fine paste at this rate, and you’d deserve it, too.”
“What a wonderful friend you are,” Ani murmured dryly, her breathing a little tight. Sellen paused a moment to let her breathe, trembling fingertips tracing up the dense musculature of her back. Anihita had some experience in the field before this, that much was apparent already, only now she appeared to be putting her head to the grindstone and furthering her progress to a worrying degree.
“...truly, tell me why you’re so determined to see this through?” Sellen’s words were unusually soft.
“I said so already; I think something terrible is going to happen to this academy. Or at least to me,” she murmured weakly, her gray eyes dull with exhaustion, “I would prefer to be ready.” Sellen watched her for a moment, and made a motion with her hand, dimming the lanterns to a muffled, warm light, and she settled a palm on Ani’s back.
“You worry me, my friend.”
Silence a while, then, Ani murmured “I worry myself, too.”
“...you worry the Queen, as well. She’s fretful when she gets your updates, about how the body strains and buckles under such a barrage of magic. Most days we can see her chewing her fingertips as she studies your work, I would be surprised if she didn’t step in herself at some point.”
“You’re just being nice,” Anihita chuckled, dark hair hiding her face, hiding her expression from Sellen’s curious eyes, “though it would be nice... to be seen.”
“Enough. Any further,” Sellen warned “and you’ll be brittle as bark, my friend. Enough.” She held Ani’s hands between her own, her fingertips burned red and cold as ice, with burns in spiral and geometric patterns up her forearms. Ani simply breathed, her lungs pumping out icy air as the rest of her spellwork vented from her organs, leaving her a shivering, cold body. “You are not a Carian royal family member, nor are you a knight. You work too hard for a role too big for you.”
She reached out and pushed Ani’s choppy black hair from her face, “Cease this madness. Rejoin me in the Academy. There is much to learn in ways that would not shatter your body.”
She just breathed. Sellen wasn’t sure she could respond.
“...then I will simply make the choice for you. Cast aside your sword. Your place is here, not on the battlefield - I will not beg of you, because you know it to be true.”
Sellen had many friends at the Academy, many people who would go to bat for her honor - but Anihita was the only one she knew who would defend her character. Her friend let out a long, frosty breath, a bit of heat returning to her cheeks.
Anihita glanced up at her friend and reached up, clapping her cool fingers around the back of her helm and pulling her in close, to rest her forehead against it. Sellen’s breathing hitched faintly. “...let me do this a little longer. I am testing something - and if I do not get the results I am looking for, I will return to my days at the academy alone. Will that suffice?” Her words were just as chilled as her breathing, and Sellen simply replied “You’re a fool. But it will suffice.”
The next time Sellen saw her friend, it was with Anihita draped between two Carian Knights, both of which looked either faintly impressed or aptly horrified. She was a bit of a mangled mess, but Sellen wasn’t surprised.
“...is she dead, or…?”
“No,” a Knight informed “she sparred with our Senior trainer for a time - he told her to rest and she’s been collapsed ever since.”
“I am not surprised but I find it in me to be disappointed,” Sellen deadpanned, “put her on one of the lab desks, I’ll patch her up, but tell your Knight-Commander he shouldn’t train someone who’s going to die under his watch.”
“Erm…” as they set her down, blood plopping into the desk, the knight muttered “he actually said he was impressed with her progress and looked forward to their next spar.”
“Of course,” she grumbled, thumping a fist against the forehead of her helm angrily, “stubborn mule she calls me, and then has the gall to do this to herself.” Instantly, she went to work setting bone and sealing bleeding wounds, swearing all the while.
However, it wasn’t long before she had another visitor.
“...what honor do I have in welcoming the Queen of Luirnia into my humble lab,” Sellen asked aloud, guarded, but attempted to keep her tone as respectful as possible. Rennala was an imposing figure, if not by height, then by the way her sharp blue eyes cut slits across the room.
“I’m searching for your peer? Europa, I haven’t received any updates from her recently regarding her knighthood studies.”
“Ah,” Sellen murmured, recalling the update the Knights gave her in detail while she put her friend back together, “ that . She’s in recovery, currently. She held her own quite well against a Knight Commander for upwards of half an hour before he smashed her into the ground and told her to take a break, and considering he broke both her legs with that maneuver, she really didn’t have a choice. I’ve kept her asleep for the past few hours to assist with her healing, else she’ll fidget .”
“I see.” a moment, then, “Take me to her.”
Sellen didn’t like being told to do things, but she wasn’t in a position to argue. Rising from her chair, she guided Rennala to the back of the labs, which she and Anihita retrofitted into a resting station, for when neither of them wanted to make the slog back to their quarters, or had experiments too unstable to leave alone all night. It consisted of a hanging blanket, a military grade cot with a single fur, and a small desk for water and whatever medicines either had to take.
Anihita lay still, bound from knuckle to elbow and foot to thigh, splints on both legs and bandages across the bridge of her nose and along her jawline. A crescent bruise had formed along the socket of her left eye, leaving it puffy and purple. Her hair spilled out around her face like ink, like an inverse halo, and the frosty, spiced scent of magic clung to her hair like a perfume, pervasive and strong.
“...I see,” was all Rennala said initially, staring down at her, expression unreadable, “...do you know what drives her to such devotion in this matter? I’m curious.”
“Because she’s a fool in love,” Sellen deadpanned, finding her patience worn thin, “I imagine she would swallow a star if it meant seeing you pleased, or taking some burden from your shoulders. Don’t ask me why she feels such a way, only that she does.”
The Queen’s cheeks flared red again, and she peered down at her for a long moment. “...I would have her moved to more comfortable quarters, so she recovers easier.”
“She doesn’t like strangers touching her,” Sellen stated, irritation tilting her tone like the angle of a knife.
“I am not a stranger,” Rennala replied simply, and gathered the sleeping scholar into her arms as carefully as she could manage, keeping the blanket wrapped about her snugly.
Sellen thought it was quite romantic, watching the Queen escort her lab partner out as though she was as precious as liquefied moonlight, but also a bit annoyed. It would be days before Ani woke up, and so that would mean days without company of equal intellect, or at least a stable distraction.
So, she walked with the Queen. “Shall I give you a report of what wounds she’s sustained, so you can better treat her?”
“I suppose that would be best,” Rennala murmured, tucking Anihita’s face against her shoulder.
Sellen’s tone gave the Queen pause - she had the disposition of someone being forced to share a toy they liked best.
It hadn’t occurred to her that others would like Anihita as well as she had. Her grip on the scholar tightened.
Caring for someone was not new to Rennala, yet the intimacy of having a single patient was making her heart soft. She recalled her days on the battlefield, mending the wounds of her knights, of her people, one after the other - of floating through the medical tents with bloody hands and barking orders, attempting to keep blood from welling and wounds from bursting open - but this was not a battlefield. This was her bedroom, and she had a Scholar in her bed, just one.
Anihita was… tall, she had realized. Not as tall as herself, of course, grace of the moon and stars gave her an imposing status, but Ani stood many heads taller than her peers, and didn’t have to glance up at her Queen in too harsh of an angle. Now laying in her bed, covered in silken blankets and bundled up to her chin, Rennala could see her height and figure in full.
While her fingers danced along her bones, her tendons, mending fractures and tears, she found scarring from previous fights. Surely by their faded quality this was before her time in Luirnia, but she paused still at the sight of them, white slits across pale skin.
They peppered her form, like snowflakes. Rennala took care to change out her bandages, sympathetic to the burns across her skin, struggling flesh nearly burnt out from spell after spell, worn thin.
Sellen had said her affection for her Queen is what drove her to this point. At one time, as a young woman, she had heard of love languages - the idea that people made gestures of affection in different ways. The knights she had previously crossed courting with, they seemed to be very… traditional, in their values. Flowers and moonlit walks, poetry and all that. Though Ani had given her flowers, they seemed to be a formality compared to the scrolls of knowledge she had discovered or translated, giving them to Rennala like precious jewels.
She hadn’t ever pushed the matter, either. Though she spoke a bit casually at times, that was generally accepted in Raya Lucaria. Not only was Rennala their Queen, but also a peer, another Professor and Spellcaster, equally hungry for more knowledge.
Still, seeing this woman in her bed, having devoted bone and blood to satisfy Rennala on some level was… good? She couldn’t find the word. Soothing, perhaps? The loyalty struck some kind of a nerve, and Rennala found herself blushing again, clearing her throat and smoothing her bedsheets for the millionth time as Ani slept.
“...Renn…ala?” Ani’s voice left her in a hoarse whisper. Rennala blinked and peered down at her scholar, who’s eyes had cracked open only a little. “...pardon my… words…”
“Don’t fret,” she soothed, “how do you feel?”
“...bad.”
Rennala laughed then, a rich, warm sound, “I see, how apt. I imagine you would feel as such, facing a Knight such as Moongrum. You held your own a while, though, in spite of your pains. I’m quite impressed.”
“You shouldn’t be,” she wheezed a bit, closing her eyes, “I still haven’t reached Knighthood yet.”
“Do you know exactly how one becomes a Carian Knight?” Rennala’s voice turned cool, and impassive, her eyes half lidded and a brow cocked. Ani simply blinked, confusion twisting her features. “You have to be Knighted. As far as I am concerned, you are more than capable of that which you set to do,” and she leaned over, pressing a kiss to Anihita’s forehead, her hand resting at Ani’s hip, making the scholar peep in surprise. “My Knight Europa, and a Scholar too. See how you’ve raised the bar? My Carian Knights will be flooding the lecture halls proper now, and curse how you managed to multitask.”
“Oh my,” Ani whispered, fidgeting as Rennala’s fingers traced the swell of Anihita’s hip through the blanket.
“Sellen was right, you do fidget. I’ll have to bind your legs down if that keeps up.” Ani’s cheeks reddened and she cleared her throat, whispering “Then I will simply have to keep it up.”
Rennala laughed again, and pressed a kiss to Ani’s lips, cupping her chin.
“ Sweet Scholar of mine .”
“So?” Sellen glanced up from her work, “It’s official, then?”
“If official is the word for it,” Ani sat nearby, crutches propped against her knee, “I got a fancy Knight’s seal that says it's official, and the other Knights had apparently been rooting for me more than I knew. I got a fair share of back-pats and head ruffles.”
“You sound surprised.”
Ani bobbed her head a bit, “Well, I assumed they would assume it was because of Her Majesty’s influence. We’re courting properly now, more, uh-”
“ Officially . As I provided.”
She scrunched her nose at Sellen, making the scar on her cheek pucker a bit, “Anyway, I assumed they would think Rennala gave me Knighthood because she likes me.”
Sellen tapped her paperwork in order, then set it flat on her desk, “You do realize they spent the better part of several weeks watching you get beat to a pulp on the daily?”
“...that part might’ve slipped my mind.” Sellen sighed and Ani squinted, “Don’t roll your eyes behind your helm, I know you’re doing it. What matters is that with my initiation, you’ll be seeing a few Knights taking some independent studies, and you may just have a few interested apprentices heading your way.”
She bolted upright, the glintstones on her helm shining, “You recommended me as a teacher? To Carian Knights?”
“Don’t misunderstand; the senior Knights already know a great deal, but the rookies, the squires and the footsoldiers, well, they might have something to glean from you. I’m trusting you on this,” she wagged a finger at Sellen, “this is all to give you a solid reputation, so don’t do anything to shatter it.”
“I won’t,” her voice went breathy in her gratitude “I can’t wait.”
“Neither can I. Since I’m not allowed to be on my feet, I’ll be hosting a few lectures and classes of my own,” she murmured, leaning her chin on her crutch, “Rennala basically demanded it of me. Something about, uh, assisting new initiates with the brutality of field work?”
“...I think she meant you’re less likely to break the recruits the way the Knight Commander would, but I imagine it's an honor regardless,” Sellen provided, packing up her research for the evening. “We haven’t dined in a while - would you like to share a meal?”
“It’s been too long,” Ani smiled faintly. “Last time we ate together was wolfing down bread and broth over research notes, babysitting some glintstones into forming in the right circuitry. It might be beneficial to eat like civilized people.”
Sellen rapped two knuckles against the top of Ani’s head, “Says the woman savage enough to break her legs trying to get a girlfriend.”
“Well, it worked .”
“Hush, you.”
“I don’t suppose you think Marika has gone mad, do you?” Ani peered over her reports with pursed lips, eyes scanning the pages. “She’s sending a champion fresh from the mountains. Apparently he’s rallying troops with less grace than Godfrey, but that matters little if he’s killed fire giants for the honor of it. We’ll have to be ready for them to fight dirty, Leyndell Knights die easy but are as tenacious as a plague.”
“You dishonor them with such a comparison,” Rennala tutted, leaning her chin on Ani’s shoulder, tracing her fingers across her forearm, “but your irritation isn’t unfounded. Your new batch of knights and footsoldiers should turn them away as efficiently as ever, however, and it won’t be for many more months that they attempt such an attack with confidence. Their new champion lacks the words to stir the heart.”
“Godfrey did have good speeches,” Ani frowned, brows up, and nodded a fair bit. “Either way, it’ll be to our benefit that we restructure some of the watchtowers while we have time, and fortify the walls correctly.”
“And here I thought I was a workaholic,” Rennala remarked, and pulled Anihita’s hair over one shoulder, kissing the crux of her neck. She shivered, her bare back flush to Rennala’s chest, her cheeks and shoulders blushing pink. “I do so like how many colors you turn…”
They had taken to sharing a room recently, though it wasn’t quite formal yet. Anihita’s reports and a few of her things lay on a large armchair nearby, along with a few used teacups. She hadn’t moved in yet, that wasn’t polite and certainly wouldn’t be accepted until they were wed, and neither of them were ready to discuss that topic so soon.
Still, Rennala fretted if Anihita didn’t come to her personally if she had any wounds from sparring, and often commanded her to wash up and sleep in her room.
There was a patient thrill in knowing the Queen of her nation watched her bathe, and though they usually spoke throughout the process, Rennala’s eyes would catch on her angles, glinting and curious.
One miscommunication between them, the first, was one of simple hunger. Anihita considered Rennala’s hesitation in courting as a way of indicating she was fresh to bodily pleasures, and sought to keep their passionate kisses to a minimum.
Rennala, however, thought differently. Anihita could still recall the feeling of her majesty’s face between her legs, pushing her against the window, her knees spread wide with parts of her armor littering the floor.
The expression must’ve shown on her face, because as she lay with her Queen, Rennala’s eyes grew wide and interested.
One of her hands snaked under the blankets, even as Anihita attempted to keep reading her reports. Rennala had clever, lithe fingers, and they slid between Ani’s legs with a purpose, fondling gently at her mound. Her breathing turned tacky a moment, “I am trying to assist you in running things, you know.”
“And you can keep doing so,” Rennala offered innocently, a long finger slowly sliding between her legs, working at her clit in lazy motions, “continue reading your report, my Scholar, I’m interested to hear what there is to say.”
She squirmed a little. “According to the ground troops, the Erdtree’s- the grace its shedding has- has brightened-” her breathing stuttered as a long finger crept between her folds, coaxing into her slick cunt. Rennala curled deeper, questing for her sweet spots, the spongy flesh growing wet against her hand.
“ Please continue .” It was a command.
“Ah- a-as you wish- the luminescence of the Erdtree has grown somewhat- suggesting Marika’s power too has- has grown-” her hips jerked as Rennala coaxed a second finger into her trembling channel, her thumb still lazily working at her clit, making Anihita’s stomach go taut, her form ramrod like a livewire.
Rennala liked to listen, loved the way her heat pulsed around her fingers so hungrily, loved the way Ani arched her back, loved the way her black hair fell across her shoulders when she tossed her head - she simply feasted on it. Her teeth skimmed Anihita’s shoulder and she jerked, her words skipping and stumbling on each other like the start of an avalanche.
She took a shallow breath, sweat beading at her brow, “This, this theory made lead to the idea that- Marika feeds the Erdtree with her, her power, not the other way around-” her fingers brushed a sweet spot and Ani’s words melted into a short moan instantly, her hands working into the report, nearly crushing it.
“An interesting theory, I’ll admit,” Rennala murmured, her mouth still resting on Ani’s shoulder, “but we’ve not enough evidence to prove it. Marika might also be holding the leash on its power, and fluctuates it to her will, to rally troops and spur loyalties.” She worked her fingers deep, and relentlessly pumped her hand between Ani’s folds, listening to her lover pant and groan, trying to catch words between her teeth. She watched as Ani’s slick dripped down the contour of her palm, thick as honey and sticking between the webbing of her fingers in heady strands. Ani’s inner walls trembled and tightened around her fingers, burning hot and craving.
Ani groaned, lashes fluttering as she shakily whispered “Then we- will simply have to- have to have our people keep a closer look at things…”
“ Closer , you say? I agree completely,” she pushed in a third finger and Ani’s knees shakily parted, her weeping cunt burning from the sweet, aching stretch of the intrusion.
“My Queen- Rennala -” she panted, her cheeks blazing red, “you tease a Scholar too much.”
“I always see to it that our meetings have a satisfying conclusion,” Rennala tutted, and she buried her fingers up to the knuckle, coaxing and curling them around her molten folds. Ani moaned, a long, throaty noise as Rennala stretched and worked her cunt to a trembling, tight state of pleasure, the size difference pushing Ani nearly to her limit. “Come now, you endured so much more during Knight training, did you not?”
Ani braced herself, her hands curling into the bedsheets, and she bucked her hips forward, eyes wet from the overwhelming throb, her core pulsing, and Rennala whispered a soft “Oh, good, wonderful ,” as her free hand wandered up to pinch at her breast. She whined, growing slicker at the motion. “You do like this, I knew it.” She worked a nipple between thumb and forefinger, pinching and rolling it till it was taut and flushed, peaked red, and Ani was thrusting her hips against Rennala’s intruding fingers with a desperate frenzy. Wet heat ran down her thighs in streaks, clinging to everything it dripped on, and like the commanding Queen she was, she halted all at once.
Ani halted too, her breath catching, left dancing on the torturous edges of pleasure.
Only her thick, frenzied breathing filled the room. The light was still dim, catching on dust motes and the shine in Rennala’s eyes, how her perfectly soft smile could sharpen so deviously at the sight of a wanting lover.
Ani ached.
“Please,” she whispered.
“Part your legs properly,” she commanded, her voice still deceivingly soft, “I want to feel every inch of you.”
Shakily, Anihita tucked her legs wide apart, knees spread, and Rennala draped her back across her chest. “Don’t hunch.” Sweat beaded across her Knight’s chest, swirling down from her breasts. It was exciting to explore the female body, especially one so wanting and so willing to please. Rennala slowly dipped her fingers between Anihita’s lower lips again, only this time her other hand joined them, digit after digit pushing further, stretching her slick walls.
She panted, shallow breaths, and her knees shook as her Queen’s fingers filled her to the brim. They traced circles and shapes inside her, feeling her wet walls, her folds, the curl of her form, and she gripped Rennala’s forearms, tears springing to her eyes. She traced the shape of runes and letters in her aching core, and she finally cried out when she felt like her pussy was turning to boiling sugar, her swollen clit thrumming with her heart beats.
“Too much, my sweetling?” She murmured, “Tell me so and I’ll stop.”
She shook her head, those lovely black tresses moving like a curtain, “N-no… I just- I want to- finish… ”
“In time,” she soothed, kissing the top of her head. “I fear my fingers may not be enough.”
“They’re enough,” she whispered, “ please .” Her inner walls tightened, wanting more stimulation, shivering from being kept captive on the brink of pleasure.
“Well,” she pretended to think about it, as though the sight of her Knight’s toned form prone beneath her wasn’t making her wet with anticipation as well, how Ani’s words bordered on begging, oh, this was too tempting. “Then I suppose I must try, hm? As you say, we won’t know till we try .”
Her hands turned relentless, articulate, demanding . Ani kept her knees apart but they trembled frantically as she threw her head back with another long moan of satisfaction, her Queen’s pale hands pounding and twisting into her, drawing a sweet pleasure that turned her sight to static stars. Rennala’s hands were drenched in her hot slick as she came, her hips automatically thrusting into her persistent hands. The Queen didn’t cease, however, her curious fingers coaxing and abusing her weeping cunt through her orgasm, still burying her hands up to the knuckles, coaxing more pleasure from her. It wasn’t until Anihita was gripping her wrists, weakly whispering “Enough, enough…” that Rennala finally ceased, her hands shimmering and damp in the lamplight.
Her knight was quivering, her knees locked into place and her cunt a sweet red, blushed and stretched. Her folds wept onto the sheets in dark streaks, and Rennala ran her hands along her legs, stretching them out from their locked positions with a few soft words, kissing the side of her head. Finally, she relaxed, her knees dropping and her back flattening against Rennala’s chest once more.
“You let me do too much to you,” The Queen murmured, “and yet, I still want to do more.”
She caught the way her hips twitched, leaving another streak of want in the covers when Ani whispered “...what shall I do?”
“...lay on your stomach,” she released her Scholar from her grip, letting Anihita fall back into the bed, naked and flushed. Rennala, meanwhile, had been in her robes through the entire ordeal - just to tease her lover - and now, stripped of them, she allowed Ani the benefit of seeing more of her body than any other lover had.
Mirror gray eyes watched the Queen with an unparalleled hunger. Rennala would always cherish how Anihita would allow her the first move, putting the power in her hands, allowing her to set the stage - so many other lovers had attempted to force the Carian Queen in ways she wasn’t ready for, but Ani would never do such a thing. Of this, she was certain. For her loyalty, Anihita was gifted the sight of her Queen without a stitch on her, milky pale skin dappled in blush, bare to the world.
As commanded, Anihita moved to lay on her stomach, her arms at her sides. Rennala ran a palm down the center of her back, and her knight jerked when something cool kissed between her legs, against her hot, sore folds. “A phallus,” she assured quietly against her lover’s hair, “hitch your hips up for me.”
She wasn’t a prude, Anihita knew what devices Rennala was using on her, but watching the Queen bear a strap-on as elegantly as she would a scepter or a sword was doing terrible things to her already gutter-minded thoughts. She hitched up onto her knees and held on for dear life as it plunged deep between her folds in a single stroke, loosened by Rennala’s relentless fingers.
And she thought her hands had stretched her enough to handle its size. Anihita gripped the sheets and gasped shallowly, frequently, as her cunt flashed with heat at every pulse, acclimating to its size.
“Too much?” Rennala offered gently.
“No- just let me- adjust,” she assured hoarsely. Her Queen assisted, reaching around her hips to tease her swollen clit again with cool fingertips, pleasure making her folds squeeze around the phallus - she barked a noise between a satisfied moan, and a groan of pain. It was still too much, her channel quaking and squeezing all at once. Stars flickered in the air as her magic automatically tried to spawn in defense of the intrusion, and Rennala’s sweet laugh filled her bedroom.
“That’s adorable. Your magic flickers in when you’re being pushed too far?”
“It’s been automatic ever since the Carian Knight training,” she groaned, putting a hand on her face, only to shout another moan as Rennala bucked her hips into her tight folds. Again, pinpricks of light flickered in and out of existence, all in blushing, warm tones.
“Now I simply must see what sort of meteor shower I can conjure with such knowledge,” her Queen’s lilting tones turned nearly wicked.
“Oh dear,” Ani whispered, before she was being fucked thoroughly into the sheets, her hips nearly dragged along the motion as the hard phallus pounded into her relentlessly. She hadn’t anticipated Rennala’s stamina to be so fierce, and as she leaned into the pistoning, her cunt flashburned pleasure up to her stomach and she let out a strangled moan, filling the air with rippling stars. Her pussy convulsed with fever-hot, silky wetness, her thighs soft from its dampness.
“Already?” Rennala didn’t stop. “Too soon, again.”
That aching burn didn’t halt, not as her Queen’s pounding continued, straight through her overwhelming orgasm and building up to another, Rennala’s fervor never ceasing. She stoked the flames fervently, watching as her Knight clung to the bed, to the headboard, her cracking moans filling the empty silence of her room. How quiet her room had been before, how had she lived without such music? How had she slept without a body at her side? Her phallus was shiny with Ani’s wanton slick, gripping the toy with such ferocity, Ani had to dig her nails into the mattress to keep from being jerked as though on a chain.
As she worked the dildo deeper, she admired how Ani’s back flexed, the dense musculature all sculpted and perfect - for her , Rennala liked to remind herself every time, a gift for her, a Knight made just for her - and she pressed a palm to those tempting muscles, making Ani arch her back. The air turned sparkling as Ani’s moans hit a perfect pitch - she’d found just the right angle to work her Knight at.
Finally, Rennala pressed flush against her hips and released a throaty moan, gripping her waist tight enough to leave bruises as she worked the toy in deep. Ani cried out, her face wet with tears and sweat, her mind drunk on pleasure, the room spinning with stars. For a moment, all she could feel was the heat of Rennala’s hands digging into her hips and the way her cum dripped onto her calves.
Then, blessed release. They both laid on the bed, Anihita aching painfully as she sat in a buzzed state, afterglow letting a gentle numbness set in. Rennala neared, curling a hand around her mound as she murmured a few healing incantations, apologizing, “I pushed you too far, I apologize… you were just, so very sweet…”
“And you, my queen, are a terrible distraction,” she countered lazily, her eyelids flickering, and her voice hoarse, “oh dear, and I still have to write a response to the ground troops regarding the army formulating…”
“Later,” Rennala decided, resting her face against her lover’s shoulder, “you work too much.”
“The armor looks good on you,” Rennala decided, “though I wish I could take the time to make it a bit more resplendent.”
“Now, that would be playing favorites,” Ani chuckled, pulling her lengthening hair back into a small ponytail. “Besides… With me among your Knights, hopefully we can end this upcoming battle before it even takes root.”
“I try not to think of it,” she sighed, and leaned forward, pressing a kiss to Anihita’s forehead, “these are dark times. I shall take the memory of you in my arms with me to battle, and it will keep me safer than any charm could.”
Ani leaned into Rennala’s kiss, lashes fluttering, “And I will keep your kisses as my own protection. I have no fear. I have lived more in Raya Lucaria than I have my whole life - and I will protect it and you with sword and spell together.”
“I must join the other troops,” Rennala stated in her twinkling, metallic tones, but she held Ani a moment longer. Only when her long fingers slid from her black hair did they part ways, across the armaments, and rejoining their troops in kind.
It had not been so simple as winning.
Rumors circulated through Luirnia like poison through a heart, growing hotter in anger, and more bitter still.
Queen Rennala, last of the Carian royal bloodline, to be wed to Radagon of the Golden Order, one of Marika’s lapdogs. She had assured her people this was the one way to keep the peace - that this was to be the dawn of a new age between those of the Erdtree and those of the Moon. That there would be no more wars, no more bloodshed, a necessary sacrifice.
Anihita squeezed her gloves between two hands, twisting the leather to a flat strand as she sat outside of Rennala’s room. Slowly, the door cocked open, and illuminated only by candlelight, Rennala peered down at her Knight. Her eyes were rimmed red.
“...it was the only way.”
“You must understand how biased I am to refute that,” Ani replied dryly, peering up at her beloved under thick black lashes, “I know you’ll be meeting with him, with Miriel - but that assuages little of my fears, Rennala. This could be a trick of Marika’s.”
“I know,” she murmured, clutching the door in her lithe hand, “but it's a risk I must be willing to take.”
“Marry another to him. Another noble. It need not be you.”
“It does- Marika wouldn’t accept it as legitimate if it wasn’t me, and her chosen champion,” she countered quietly.
Silence sat, heavy and dark between them. The red glow of the candle caught the shine of Ani's eyes and the rough score marks on her armor, framing her like a shattered reflection.
Anihita spoke again. “...I will support you in all that you do, you know that. I can deny you nothing, my Rennala. But… say the word, and your spouse will be torn to ribbons.”
“My stalwart Knight,” she draped her arms around her shoulders, kneeling now, and kissed her cheek. “I know I am safe with you nearby.”
They gathered each other into their arms and clung tightly, the folds of their uniforms and robes crossing and furling together, till it was impossible to see where one body ended and another began, a heartbroken mimicry of a graven school.
The morning greeted them at its usual time, a dreadful punctuality none looked forward to.
Rennala did not change from her scholarly robes when she met her groom, and she eyed him somewhat nervously, though none could deny the scarlet touch on her cheeks at his bare chest. Many saw it as a good sign, that already the two were beloved and beholden.
Radagon peered over his bride with gold-bright eyes, curious and wary as a passing wolf, his movements slow and calculated. When he offered his hand to Rennala, his fingers curled about her palm, as though savoring her velvety touch.
They made a beautiful couple, dappled in a golden glow, Rennala shining with moonlight and Radagon's long red hair flowing like autumn between his broad shoulders.
Anihita sat with the other Carian Knights, helmet on, and two of her knight-brothers rested their palms against her back, and held her steady. It wasn't common news that Rennala had a lover before this, and it worked well politically, yet those who knew felt the sharp despair of their own. This was their little Europa, who shouldered the war with them, who ate their terrible military rations and spoke evenly and firmly as a school teacher, so that fear of death wouldn't strike their hearts. This was their silent scholar, who bled her culture dry and gave only the most luminescent cuts of her spell work to their beloved Queen.
A little planet, pulled out of gravity, free falling into the void.
Sellen's anger burned hot behind her helm.
After the ceremony, when the bride and groom departed, the witch approached her fellow mage and held her hand so firmly, her knuckles turned white.
"You're moving in with me," Sellen decided, "else you will dissolve into a sad slug of a woman, and I won't see that fate fall to you."
Anihita only nodded, her tongue trapped behind an iron jaw as she grit her teeth, eyes burning. They had shared a space before, but it had stung when Ani had to remove what few parts of herself she kept in Rennala's room back out. The end of a honeyed era.
Rennala had forced her to accept her scrolls back. "It would be unfair to metabolize this into my ever growing sphere of knowledge if I cannot share it with you," she had murmured thickly, and Ani could only nod, could only agree to every suggestion and heartbreaking choice.
A new normal bloomed after that.
Rennala spent her time, initially, just teaching her new husband the fundamentals of spell craft and glintstone sorcery. Rumor said he took to it clumsily at first, but he had been eager to please, and his tenacious nature began to work through the maze of Rennala's heart.
Anihita began spending a lot more time studying and perfecting her craft, or sparring with her fellow knights. She had been called to halt more than once when her magic turned an unsettling, transparent red tone and lanced the air like it was cutting the atmosphere.
"I'm sorry," she apologized, her helmet in her hand and sweat flattening her hair to her scalp, "old magic from home sneaks in if I'm not careful." She had been scolded, but no more than usual. Her knights looked the other way when her spells smelled like copper and silver nitrate, when they cut down dummies and prop soldiers in a way reminiscent of butchering. None asked to learn it, either. It was… too unrecognizable to want to define.
Sellen had noted the strangeness of her roommate first. "Did you know you talk in your sleep?"
She had blinked dully at that, in the middle of her fourth cup of tea and readying herself to mount a glintstone crown onto her own sculpted helm, "...I do not."
"You do. I can't make it out, but you speak a great deal."
"Nightmares, likely. I'll get some of that lily you mentioned once, could do the trick- and no, I don't want you to cast a sleep cantrip on me, my mouth tastes like mustard weed for hours when you do."
"Sleep with a lemon in your mouth," Sellen suggested.
"Fie," Ani wrinkled her nose and set to work.
Having worked through the ranks, she was to have her own glintstone helm. Sellen was proud, but wasn't quite pleased with the sculpt of the face. It was Anihita's face, for certain, but her eyes were closed and her brows drawn up, as though about to weep. She thumbed at the stone face.
"You don't think it would be more appropriate to have a confident look? Or, something that strikes fear? You might wear this with your Carian knight armor."
"Misery agrees with me," she sighed "and I don't have a face made for smiling.”
Not true, Sellen thought, but she knew Ani wouldn't hear of it. "Well, let me know when you want a new one, one with a bit more… hm, character."
"I'll keep your delicate fashion sensibilities in mind," she mounted another glintstone.
The evening turned sour in an insant.
"I am not of the mind to make demands, but I do expect orders to be followed," a dulcet, low voice echoed down the hall, commanding as a wolf's howl right before a hunt. "A knight who carries both sword and scroll lives in the halls, and I will learn from only those my wife deems perfect for the role."
Ani's face turned pale as winter. Sellen shut the door, gesturing frantically, and Ani simply threw her hands up - there was nowhere else to go other than out a window, and she took no pleasure in scaling the armaments like a lizard.
The door handle yanked from Sellen's grip as it was pulled open - the wrong way - permanently bending the hinges in on themselves with a horrifying creak and crack of snapping wood.
Golden eyes gleamed, and a handsome mouth tucked into a polite smile, framed by red, red locks, greeted them.
Along with a still naked chest.
"Knight-Professor Europa. My wife has told me much of your exploits," Radagon spoke as Sellen clumsily bowed, and Ani followed only to break eye contact. Two Carian knights were behind him - at least her brothers in arms had tried to intervene.
"I am no better or worse than my peers," she decided, staring at her feet.
"A jack of all trades is better than a master of one," he countered, "I need your flexibility."
Sellen coughed awkwardly into her fist.
Ani blinked dully at him.
Only then did his sentence catch up with him, but he only cleared his throat, doubling down "Will you assist in teaching me?" Radagon's red hair matched his flushed cheeks.
"...Queen Rennala's nostalgia blinds her," Anihita replied coolly. Sellen didn't flinch at her frosty tone, but it was nostalgic indeed to hear winter trapped in the velvety tones of her fellow scholar again. "I repeat, I am no better or worse than my peers. Let not the opinion of one sway your purpose, your Majesty."
"My wife prefers you ," he concluded instantly, and he folded his arms across his broad chest, "I will not depart without an answer."
"Incorrect, you will not depart without the answer you most prefer to hear."
"Then are you refusing your King?"
Anihita met his golden gaze and an incredulous laugh left her. "Then do not ask, command me to teach you, and by loyalty to the Carian family I'll bark and come to heel."
He flinched. "That is… not my intention. I simply wish to please my wife."
"Hearing her name might do you wonders," she crossed her arms in return, gray eyes reflecting his red hair in slits, "unless you only define those around you in response to your existence."
"You do not like me very much, do you?"
She snorted. The air was tense, yet she ignored the atmosphere as though it was passing weather. "I do not like people as a default. You have yet to prove yourself in my eyes, King or not. I was an academic before I was a soldier."
"That is exactly the kind of teacher I need."
She groaned and threw her hands up, turning about.
"I will not ask again," Radagon promised as he neared, "but I need a teacher. I cannot consume all of Rennala's time as I learn to run a country alongside her, you’re practiced in such a routine."
Anihita stiffened. "...you know of me, then."
Quizzically, he cocked his head. "My wife said you helped her bear the burden of the state, yes."
She grit her teeth, grinding audibly as Sellen stood awkwardly between them.
"...I will meet with you tomorrow morning for lessons."
He let out a sigh of relief, "Thank you." His fingers rested on her shoulder for a brief moment and she shot back on her heels, her arm up. He retracted his hand, blinking, "ah… I see. Thank you anyway.'
He seemed used to rejection from his new countrymen. Anihita let the conflict of that realization show on her face as Radagon departed out the broken door, ducking under the doorway.
Anihita wore her new Glintstone helm to the first of Radagon’s lessons. This was an appropriate choice, as he nearly blew up the lecture hall she’d pitched a slot for, and the front of her helm was burned black as coal from the rupture of magic.
“So,” she started, braiding her fingers together, “do you… listen , when people talk to you, or do you just wait to respond?”
He apologetically clasped his hands together, brows up and eyes distinctly looking away from his teacher, “IIII thought I had managed more of the basics than I truly did.”
She gestured to the empty space around them, mostly of burned furniture and blackened tile, and a single broken window, creaking ominously, tattling on the King for his mistakes.
He winced. “It won’t happen again.”
“On the contrary, I think this will happen a great deal more times than I’m equipped for,” she huffed in frustration “alright, we’re having our lessons outside next time. And why aren’t you using a staff for this?”
“I don’t have one.”
“...do you not have one, or did you not bring one.”
“In this I am innocent,” he replied, hands up and palms exposed, “I do not have a staff to cast with - Rennala taught me cantrips, not so much… well, advanced sorcery.”
Ani found herself thumping a fist to the front of her helm in a similar fashion that Sellen did, and stopped herself short from the tantrum, “...alright. First thing then - a staff that’ll fit your stature, then we continue with the lessons. That way, the only thing that’ll blow up if you get a spell wrong is a stick and not the eastern lecture hall.”
“Thank you,” he murmured, low tones appreciative, and she was glad the helm hid her surprise. A golden gaze stared at her, waiting for more instructions, and she cleared her throat, echoing awkwardly in the burned room.
“For now, let’s clean up.”
The next lesson was a bit easier. With a primed favor from Iji, though she didn’t know him well enough to call him a friend, he was willing to assist in the transition for the new King. A retrofitted staff fit for his stature was procured, with a very simple glintstone mounted head for casting, and classes resumed.
However, after the last incident, everyone kept clear of the furthest lecture hall. Ani decided to continue teaching there if that was the case.
“Now, when you’re casting, you have to remember this isn’t like Grace. You’re not pulling something from you, you’re pulling it from the atmosphere, from footprints the stars left behind, those traces of stardust,” she instructed firmly. “Recall this and it shouldn’t make your spells turn gold and destructive.”
“The grace I bear enhances most things,” he replied serenely, focusing on firing glintstone pebbles at a dummy. It was shaped out of bags of chaff and a bucket for a head. “I’ve never had to throttle it before.”
“I imagine,” she murmured, watching his moves hawkishly. Like herself, whatever power he had housed in him from his patron turned all of his magic a little shimmery, a little golden, like a sun was just on the cusp of rising constantly. It wasn’t a horrible color, but it was certainly different in an academy full of teals and blues.
A glintstone burst against the bucket and popped a considerable hole through it, and Ani gestured for him to stop. He glanced to her, brows up as she stated “You’re doing well on the basics. Pebbles will always hit what you’re aiming for, however, so next time we’ll try something a bit more intense.”
“You’ve only been teaching me Glintstone sorceries,” he noted, leaning partially on his staff, resting a hand on his hip, “but you’re also cross trained in Carian sorceries, aren’t you?” His red braid swung behind him like a pendulum.
“Yes. But that takes extensive training to learn, and I had already mastered the basics when I decided to learn,” she sighed.
“May I see a demonstration?”
“I’m not a showgoat,” she deadpanned, only to instantly snap “ Phalanx .” A barrage of glowing blades manifested around her head in an arc, all swinging together to aim at Radagon like serpents heads.
He jumped at the sight of them so instantly forming, and all focusing on him, though he didn’t look fearful, merely surprised. “That takes a great deal of Focus, doesn’t it?”
“It does,” she watched him a moment, before gesturing to the dummy - the swords rent it completely asunder in a flurry of false blades and shattering magic, wheat chaff scattering across the floor. He stared, golden eyes calculative.
“...Rennala was right, you are something else.”
She shifted awkwardly at the mention of her former lover. “How… how is she? We don’t see each other very often these days.”
The leal hound noticed her shift in tone and stood at attention, “Busy, as your ruler.”
The dismissive answer turned her to ice. She simply turned aside and gathered her things with the response “I see” and conjured a cantrip to clean up the wheat chaff.
“Why do you want to know?”
She didn’t grace him with an answer, scarred fingers plucking a few remaining shells from the floor and disposing of them.
“You can ask for yourself if you’re truly worried,” he continued, watching her.
“Implying that I’m not if I don’t visit,” she countered, turning to look at him, her mournful helm hiding her vicious snarl. “I’m incapable of doing such a thing when I’ve got my hands full training you.”
“It’s just strange to me! Everyone I ask says you were basically her personal Knight, and then you abandoned your post after the war.” He smacked the tip of his staff to one of the nearby chairs to emphasize his point, “I thought she was your Queen- Everyone calls you her stalwart Knight, everyone- yet I haven’t seen you two in the same room my entire duration here. Why pretend to be worried if you’re not?”
Anger rose like bile in her mind, burning, blinding, instinctual and frantic - her hands clenched into white-knuckled fists and the glintstones that adorned her helm flared an angry, ugly crimson as she took a breath, contracting the color like blood rushing to a wound, her voice hitched as though prepared to shout - then it all faded at once and she turned away.
“I have my reasons,” she stated, “and though they are valid, you are entitled to none of them, and you are even less in a position to lecture me about them, boy.”
“I am your King ,” he grit in return, his jaw set. His golden eyes flashed brightly, his hair roiled like a blood-red ocean wave, he was the epitome of a handsome storm in that moment.
“Through marriage,” Ani reminded, unwilling to be moved. She gathered her things and settled her staff into her palm, “A boy-king you will remain until you find a better way to communicate with your people other than prying words and assumptions. I left my post because your Wife asked me to,” the anger flushed from his features instantly “because she worried I would turn you to a pile of meat at the first sign of danger. I am a Knight of this land,” she angled her staff at him in a single thrust, the glowing gemstones nearly touching his nose as her robes fluttered, following the motion like a tide, “and not even a King will stop me from defending my people.”
“...You’re Numen,” he murmured, “like me. These are not your people.”
“If that is how you think,” she finally stepped out the door “then you will never be a good husband , much less a good king.”
Anihita skipped the rest of their lessons that week.
When the new moon began, she resumed them, though no words passed between them. She figured he would attend regardless, and was proven right.
Nearing their usual hall, she could hear the sound of glintstone sorcery being used, the telltale chimes and sighs of star-stuff incinerating itself. Cracking open the door, she managed to catch the sight of something gold and twisted before Radagon slammed the door open completely, peering down at her.
“...were you using Grace through the staff again. Because you know that’ll blow it up.”
“I wasn’t,” he replied, and his voice had an unusual husky angle to it, like he’d been having a screaming match with someone recently. “...I wanted to talk to you.”
“Then perhaps if you truly cared, you would’ve gone out of your way to find me,” Ani shouldered past him as a tense sigh left his broad chest.
“I deserved that one.”
“You also deserve a large lobster to smack you into the upper atmosphere, but that would require more effort. What did you want to discuss, your Majesty,” Ani leaned on the rickety desk, arms crossed, entirely prepared for another argument.
Radagon’s eyes were to the floor, and he worked his long fingers together in a worried motion, “...I know you do not like me.”
“Very astute.”
“Please let me finish,” he sighed “I thought… you left Rennala’s post to hurt her, because you dislike me, and that she was caught in the crossfire of your hatred. I know now you’re more direct than that, and though you can be a bit mean, you’re not that petty when it comes to grudges. I… I spoke with the other Carian Knights a little. They informed me a little more of your character.”
He looked up at her for a response, and his expression tightened when she hadn’t moved. She gave him a minute of silence before asking “So is that an apology, or not, because I don’t hear an apology. I hear an excuse.”
Radagon blinked twice, and stammered out “Oh, I- I’m sorry , about-”
“Alright, forgiven. Now set the chairs back to the side so we can try a new spell, I’m sick to death of seeing you spit out pebbles.”
“...that’s it?” He leaned in, nearing her close enough to touch, and she fought not to cringe back at his strange presence. “You aren’t going to push for more?”
“I have no desire to see you grovel, its unbecoming of a ruler,” she sighed, and tapped his face back with her staff - he pouted a bit as he backed away, “other researchers and scholars here may thrive in the power of being right, but I have things to do. So, chairs.”
“I see,” he did as she asked, and when the dummies had been set back up, he reached out and touched her hand briefly, with two fingers.
She paused, “What?”
“Your hands are scarred.”
“Yes?” she took his staff for a moment, adjusting the angle of a few stones, ensuring the fractals were correctly augmented, “My life has not been an easy one.”
“You’re Numen, though, aren’t you? Which clan did you hail from-”
“A dead one,” she interrupted him again, this time her tone brokered no argument, “they were dead and gone by the time I was old enough to tie my laces. Ask no more of me on this topic.”
He shut his mouth so fast his teeth clacked, and he looked the other way, “Alright.”
The lessons resumed as usual.
“Did you and the golden retriever make peace,” Sellen asked, holding a glintstone up to the light of the moon. “He’d been moping around a while after your little tiff.”
“He said I abandoned Rennala.”
“Ah. I’m surprised you didn’t cut his head off and mount it to a pole.”
“I doubt I could’ve,” she sighed, hastily brushing her hair out with a comb, “there’s a reason he was an adversary for us, he has a holy grace about him. Besides, I doubt the massive golden eyesore wouldn’t let him die proper anyway.”
Something tugged on a lock of her hair and she turned, finding Sellen curiously pulling a few strands between her fingers, “Your hair has gotten so much longer now. Do you want a trim?”
She raised a brow, “And trust you with a knife around my neck?”
“Don’t be callow, it's an honest question!”
“No trims please, but if you could braid it, that would be a godsend. I need to wind it under my helm, Radagon has been touchy lately,” she informed sitting straight in her bed as Sellen leaned behind her, digits parting and curling her hair into different intricate strands.
“Touchy? …how touchy.”
“Nothing perverted or he’d’ve lost a hand,” she sighed “but he often tries to touch my bare hands, or hold my shoulder. I think he’s trying to initiate a friendship.”
“You know, you speak of him like he has zero experience in interpersonal matters, but your only friends are me and some of the Knights through oaths,” Sellen snorted.
“...I am very exclusive to who I like.”
“Then I suppose our King wants to join that roster,” she tied her braid off with a little blue ribbon “There you go my dear. Fit for an argument with royalty.”
“Fie,” she sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose “why me? Wouldn’t you like to teach royalty instead?”
“Oh, between my time hosting classes and doing research, I’m completely booked.”
“Don’t forget about annoying me.”
“Oh yes; I nearly forgot that bracket, thank you.”
Ani sighed and adjusted her underclothing, setting to pull on her robes and smooth them over her shoulders when a knock met the door.
Sellen grumbled, “I never should’ve decided to live on property. Mark my words, Ani, I’m going to save up for a castle of my own some time,” and she opened the door to Queen Rennala of the full moon staring back at her.
“...am I interrupting something?”
“Yes,” Ani sighed, trying not to be rattled by the sight of her in their tiny doorway “we’re not ready for classes yet, what do you need, your Majesty. We’ll try to be hasty.”
Rennala peered over her with soft blue eyes and reached a hand out, “I would like to speak to you privately, Knight Europa.”
She moved to take her helm and Rennala reached forward, touching her shoulder, “Please.”
Her hands trembled as Ani shoved them into the pockets of her robe, trying to save some self respect and dignity, “...I can deny you nothing. Lead the way.”
She felt bare without her helm, without that mask hiding her face from the world. It had been a good shield, and a better way of denying anything she felt. Out here, however, in the early morning, the night sky still visible with a few stars peeking through the paling sky, she might as well been naked with how bare she felt next to Rennala.
“...I appreciate you helping Radagon the way you have,” her former lover spoke, hands demurely crossed as they walked, “You do not have to like him, but you’ve saved me again in the workload regardless. He was very timid when he discovered I’d been the one to insist things be brought to a minimum between us, and seems eager to make some kind of amends.”
“Well, he was wrong, so I just wanted him to stop being wrong,” she muttered, “things are going well with Marika, then?”
“Our treaties with Leyndell hold strong, yes. Again, I really appreciate your patience in working with him. He’s a bit impulsive at times, but he really does appreciate your teachings.”
“If I can teach a squire I can teach a champion,” she murmured, looking to the swaying trees, to the skyline, to the walls of the academy, anything else but the woman standing at her side, exuding heat like a stone field on a sunlit day.
“He’s even been asking the Carian Knights about you, and he likes to talk about you sometimes, when we’re… when we’re settling,” she cleared her throat, “So-”
Ani stopped walking, the crunching of the grass coming to a halt. “Are you… trying to butter me up to the idea of spending more time with your husband?”
“I… want you to maybe get used to the idea of stomaching him a little more,” Rennala’s voice strained “I miss you. I would like you around more, it hurts to hear about you secondhand.”
“ You’re the one who decided to marry him.”
“That’s not fair,” she replied softly, and Ani looked aside, eyes reddening as she muttered “I know. I know. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that- it's just- I already spend a great deal of class time with him, and apparently he doesn’t know of our history. It’s better that he doesn’t, maybe, otherwise he’d just pout around like he did before, but for all eternity , and I just-”
“Don’t have the time for that,” Rennala finished, sighing, “I know. Does this mean you don’t want to start your rounds again? I miss your visits, though you’re not under duress to bring flowers or precious scrolls this time.”
She peered up at Rennala, “...are you asking it of me?”
“Yes,” the Queen replied, her voice still tender, and Anihita sighed.
“...alright. I make no promises as for exact measures, but I’ll try to visit when I can.”
For the first time in what felt like centuries, Rennala knelt next to her and pressed a cool kiss to her cheek, “Thank you, my Knight.”
She departed after that, her footfalls growing distant, and in the silence of solitude, Anihita stood motionless, holding her face for many minutes as the sun rose. She listened to her own breathing and the sound of the Academy waking up, watched the passing birds, and came to a sad realization.
Not a breath of warmth had colored her cheeks when Rennala kissed her.